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September 21, 2015

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.

Shiv Sena, a right-wing political party that is influential in India's Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital – is a ruling coalition partner in the federal and state governments led by the Bharatiya Janata Party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the past, Shiv Sena's late founder Bal Thackeray had called for Hindu suicide bombers to challenge Islamic terrorism. Now an editorial in Shiv Sena's newspaper Saamana urges the same, as per this Indian media report:

A page from Saamana newspaper

"Shiv Sena, on Tuesday [August 18], defended its founder Bal Thackeray's ideology, saying he had created 'a fear of Hindus' solely in the 'national interest,' and struck out at a weekly magazine [called Tehelka] for its article against the late party chief.

"The group stated, in a Saamana editorial [in response to an article published in Tehelka]: 'Hindus should be able to live in this country with pride and his (a Hindu's) voice should roar like that of a lion. If an answer has to be given to Pakistan extremists, Hindus will also have to become highly religious. To answer Pakistan, Hindus need to become human bombs and invade their country,' it said in controversial remarks.

"It continued: 'People have lot of love and respect for Balasaheb Thackeray and feel proud of his nationalist ideals. He surely instilled the fear of Hindus among people,' an editorial in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ said.

"Sena workers had, on Monday [August 17], staged a protest at the Nariman Point area in South Mumbai against the magazine [Tehelka], ripping up and torching its copies. A case was also filed in adjoining Thane district in connection with the article.

"Defending the thoughts and ideology of Thackeray, the Sena said: 'If his stand, i.e. that Pakistani extremists should be responded to in their own terms, can be called terrorism, then this kind of terrorism is in the national interest.'

"The party said that Thackeray had considered all religions equal, and so, after then-prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984, he appealed for calm in the state. It added: 'It was because of him that the Sikh community could live in peace in Mumbai and other parts of the state.' It added: 'Today, even if we don’t want a magazine to gain unnecessary publicity by publishing false information on Balasaheb, if people's anger rises, then the already dead magazine will be further crushed by them in the market.'

Source: Siasat.com (India), August 18, 2015. The original English of the report has been lightly edited for clarity and standardization.

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